John Walker, chairman of Macquarie Group of Companies Korea, speaks during a recent interview with The Korea Times in downtown Seoul./ Korea Times photo by Yoon Sung-won

John Walker, chairman of Macquarie Group of Companies Korea, is a veteran investment banker who has led the company for the last 14 years since it was established in the late 2000

As the head of Asia's largest listed investment funds, business management should be undoubtedly what he can do best.

At the same time, he had another thing from his private life to talk about — music.

Walker appreciates Koreans and their passionate attitude, especially for art and music, for inspiring him to realize his love for music again.

"Korean people really stick together when they make music in bands. It really awakened me and I really appreciate it," he said during a recent interview with The Korea Times.

Walker, who just entered his 60s this year, said he first tasted the joy of music when he started to learn piano at the age of eight. Since then, he attended a conservatory for six years honing his skills to play the piano.

"I was a just typical kid but my family was musical," Walker said. "My mother played violin and the piano, my sisters all played guitar and my brother played the flute."

It was when he went to the United States as a 15-year-old tenager that he picked up a guitar. Mesmerized by the instrument's charm, he joined in bands and played the guitar. Looking back on his younger days, Walker said he was "lucky" to go to school in the U.S. because I studied only piano for a long time in Australia.

John Walker, chairman of Macquarie Group of Companies Korea, plays guitar during a 30th anniversary gala dinner for the Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul, Nov. 9, 2011. / Courtesy of Macquarie Group Korea

He had to stop playing the guitar in bands, and it was only 30 years later that he could recover his passion for music.

Walker admitted music is something that can hardly be forgotten and said it would, "come back" to one's memory. He said he appreciates Korea in starting to do music again in three decades.

"One of the big things that I really owe Korea is that the country has re-awakened me with music," Walker said. "If I didn't come here, my guitars would be covered with cobwebs and I would never have taken up music again."

Walker recalled a senior, who was a chairman and the drummer in his group. He said he learned much from his dedication to the band.

"Music and the band were a big part of his life because he was close to retiring from his business. Yet still, he had his position on an international semiconductor industry's association. You know how Korean people never retire. So the band was his way of maintaining balance between his work and life by keeping his network and his friends," he said. "I also thank him for his studio where we could practice and perform from time to time."

Walker's band has six members in it — saxophonist, flutist, trombonist, two guitarists a bass guitarist, drummer, keyboardist and two singers including him. But he said the members are not fixed since the band is friendship-based. Sometimes other people who can sing or play an instrument come along and play together.

"I don't believe I was invited to the band because I was any good. Maybe my colleagues just needed a senior foreigner CEO to be in the band," Walker said with modesty. "Anyway, I went along and it was great."

Walker said he'll be the only foreigner when one of the singers leaves the country later this year. "I always tried to bring another foreigner to give some balance to the band," he said.

Walker said the best way of describing his music is to call it as a kind of country rock and he added a bit of rap number, folk music, ballad, and rock and roll to give variety.

"The genre depends on the mood that you're in when you do it, and it depends on what's happening in and around your life," he said. "I wrote about my father-in-law who passed away last year. It was a sad thing and was happening in my life."

Walker said he worked for a new album with 12 songs. Most of the songs he composed by himself reflects his own feelings and thoughts.

"I was trying to think of what to call my album. And then I decided to call it, "After the Storm," which is about the disastrous typhoon in the Philippines," he said. "I was also thinking of donating all the money came from the sale of the album to the Philippines typhoon victims."

In his recent album titled "12 Bridges," he said, "Music creates a vast bridge over the normal traffic of our lives which can carry all our thoughts and feelings to others around us," adding his wish to sympathize with people and societies.